My husband made this for Christmas Eve dinner. It was delicious. Since neither of us are a fan of goat cheese we just substituted regular cream cheese for the goat cheese. It was a beautiful presentation and very tasty indeed.
This party cheese ball is savory yet tangy and a different twist on the traditional cheddar-based cheese ball. I made this for a Christmas gathering and everyone really liked the taste of the cream cheese and goat cheese blend. For the outside I used raspberry-glazed almonds and also served it alongside pepper-jelly. The savory cheese fruit-glazed almonds and sweet-spicy pepper jelly was a great combination to spread on party crackers!
It made a big hit at my Christmas party. The presentation is great. I didn't have the herbs that were suggested so I just added Lemon Pepper and garlic powder instead. The goat cheese is an important ingredient so try to use this without substituting. There's a lot of almonds in this dish but splurge for the effect.
I love Chef John's recipes but this was not for my taste. I did not like the taste of all of the herbs I felt like the tarragon overpowered everything. Next time I will try it with half the amount of herbs. It made for a beautiful presentation however very festive!
I absolutely love goat cheese and when I saw this recipe included it I knew it would be a hit. I doubled the recipe to make two and they were completely devoured at my party!
Delicious and impressive! I did a taste test with roasted and raw almonds and roasted won hands down. Couldn't find fresh tarragon so used probably about 1/4 tsp. dried and I think that worked just fine. Also used about twice as much garlic as the recipe called for and used garlic salt instead of plain salt. I love garlic. Used saran sprayed with cooking spray to help mold the pinecones shape. It did make a lot! Everyone loved it and took pictures.
The more parsley the more refreshing it tasted. I like the kick of goat cheese so used 6 ounces and cut back 2 ounces of cream cheese. Mine didn't look as beautiful as Chef John's, but everyone dug the pine cone effect.
The only problem I had was everyone thought it was to pretty to eat!
Hilarious! My sister used to make a pinecone cheesball 60 YEARS AGO -although I'm not sure the ingredients were exactly the same. Sisters tasted good.
